ONE of the famous landmarks in Levuka Town is the Royal Hotel, one of the Pacific's oldest and continuously operated business, running for 150 years since its establishment the 1860s.
Within its classic colonial wooden building, one would constantly be hearing the name 'Eta' being blurted out from the flower gardens.
I heard it while stumbling up the wooden steps of the Royal on a late Saturday night after a grog session at Lovoni Village.
I thought it may have been the ghosts of ancient Levuka. Many who had stayed at the Royal had come up with reports of seeing ghosts.
Once I confirmed the voice was coming from the gardens below, I made it a point to investigate the following morning.
I finally saw the owner of the voice and it belonged to a parrot.
The parrot is named 'Eta' and obviously she knows her name by heart and it seems to be the only word she can utter.
Her owner, Marc Yoshida, says she was given as a gift to his grandmother Dorothy Ashley by one of her employees named Arieta.
She is 22 years old and originally from Gau, the island where she was brought from as a youngling and has been a Levuka resident for a little over two decades.
"When she was brought here, we usually only used Eta to call Arieta and she (parrot) used to call out Eta as well so we named her Eta," Marc says.
Eta is a Fijian musk parrot, which is native to Fiji and has been living at the Royal Hotel ever since she was brought there.
She calls a cage her home and Marc says that on one occasion when they had released Eta, she only flew as far as the uto tree within the hotel compound and didn't even venture further.
Eta has been a regular at the Royal and has even earned a spot in the distinguished history of the hotel.
When approached for a photo, Eta was so shy, going to the far end of her perch, away from us and looking away, telling us we're not welcome to take her picture.
Our photographer, Eliki Nukutabu who hails from Nukuloa Village in Gau, added Eta was behaving like a "Gauan lady" and needed a lot of enticing before allowing us to take her photo.
Everyone burst into laughter before Marc introduced us to 'Elina' a one and half-year old musk parrot he keeps inside the house.
"She is very tame and we don't need to keep her inside a cage as she is very mild and young too."
Unlike Eta, Elina is from Taveuni and has been with Marc since last year.
As soon as a finger is stuck out towards her, Elina knows that's her cue and steps onto it as if it is a perch.
She follows the forearm straight away and rests on the shoulder appeased.
She warmed to Eliki very fast and Eliki obliged by tenderly talking to her and she returned the attention. Maybe she knew that he was her tauvu from Gau.
Those two parrots are the new addition to the extended Ashley family, the owners of the Royal Hotel.
They help Marc who is managing hotel on behalf of his family.
Elina has just been introduced into the family and practically lives in the Ashley residence while the older Eta prefers the outdoors.
Eta is a well-known residence of the Royal and hasn't checked out ever since arriving 22 years ago.